Speaker 1: You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure
Speaker 1: you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. The fall of the House
Speaker 1: of Assad in Syria and now it's under new management.
Speaker 1: We've got a bunch of Jiehattists, former perhaps who are
Speaker 1: running this country, which is in a very strategic geo
Speaker 1: political location. What's going to happen in Syria? What does
Speaker 1: it mean for us? What does it mean for the
Speaker 1: broader Mideast. We'll talk to our friend Bill Roggio about this.
Speaker 1: He is a senior editor at Long War Journal. Bill,
Speaker 1: first of all, we haven't really heard much about these
Speaker 1: rebels or whatever we're calling them today, in a while.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, they take a Leppo
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, yeah, these guys just took the
Speaker 1: second biggest city, second most important city in Syria. And
Speaker 1: then they took Damascus just a few days after that
Speaker 1: with it felt like barely a fight. Did anyone see
Speaker 1: this coming? How'd this happen?
Speaker 2: Hey, Buck, thanks for having me on. Yeah, this caught
Speaker 2: everyone by surprise. There was a ceasefire between the brutal
Speaker 2: Assad regime. That's you know, it's hard to not be
Speaker 2: happy that they're gone. And various so called rebel groups,
Speaker 2: one of them is fully inundated with jahattest organizations, another
Speaker 2: back by Turkey. They you know, we just had this law,
Speaker 2: and lo and behold. On November twenty seventh, the group
Speaker 2: hyatihirol Sham and the Syrian National Army, they coordinate in operation.
Speaker 2: They go against Assad's forces and within ten days they
Speaker 2: take Damascus. Assad flees to Russia. Why does this happen?
Speaker 2: Why did no one see this coming? It's a great question, Buck,
Speaker 2: and I don't have the answer. I think everybody was
Speaker 2: looking at a lot of different problems Russia, Ukraine, and
Speaker 2: then right in the region. You know, you have Israel
Speaker 2: and Hezbolah, Israel and Gaza against Hamas and is Palestinian
Speaker 2: Islamic Jihad, Israel and Iran trading blows, the houthis dominating
Speaker 2: the Red Sea, shutting down US shipping, international shipping, and
Speaker 2: I think a lot of intelligence agencies got stretched. I
Speaker 2: think the Turks saw an advantage here and they organized
Speaker 2: this offensive. They have their motivations, one of them, for one,
Speaker 2: anti Assad, and two the Kurdish groups that are control
Speaker 2: of large areas of northern and eastern Syria are their
Speaker 2: sworn enemies. So the Turks they saw an opportunity. They
Speaker 2: mustered their forces and they struck, and the Assad again
Speaker 2: collapsed like a house of card. Clearly Asad did nothing
Speaker 2: to improve his security forces. And then I would also
Speaker 2: argue that Iran has been distracted. It's been mired in
Speaker 2: a war in Lebanon and supporting Hezbolah and supporting the
Speaker 2: Houthis and the Red Sea and trying to get support
Speaker 2: to Gaza in exchanging blows with Israel. So I think
Speaker 2: you had Iran's focus taken away. Russia also deal you know,
Speaker 2: with a skeleton crew in Syria, dealing with its fighting
Speaker 2: in Ukraine. And you know, I think it's a masterful
Speaker 2: stroke by the Turks, and by no means, you know,
Speaker 2: I think we just exchanged one horrible regime for probably
Speaker 2: several horrible regimes. I don't think anyone's going to take
Speaker 2: full control of Syria.
Speaker 1: This well, let's let's get into some of this. This guy,
Speaker 1: Ahmed al Shara, who was formerly called Abu Muhammad al Jelani,
Speaker 1: that was his U nom Daguerre right, he is the
Speaker 1: head of Hayat Tarier al sham hts. He is for
Speaker 1: now de facto in charge, at least that's how it's
Speaker 1: being reported. They say that he was formerly affiliated with
Speaker 1: al Qaeda. Uh that feels, you know, when they're using
Speaker 1: the al Qaeda term here for somebody, it's really hard,
Speaker 1: I think, as in America not to say what the
Speaker 1: hell is going on here?
Speaker 3: So but what are we supposed to think about this guy?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we should think nothing that other than once a tarist,
Speaker 2: always a tarrist. I think a little background. I referred
Speaker 2: to him as the albumhamal Jilani or Jilani is all
Speaker 2: referred to him here. He went into Iraq after the
Speaker 2: US invasion, joined the ranks of al Qaeda. If he
Speaker 2: was not a member of al Qaeda even before the
Speaker 2: hand He's a Syrian and al Qaida had a significant
Speaker 2: network there it still does. He detained by the US
Speaker 2: and put in the Buka prison system, which is known
Speaker 2: as the University of Jihad in Iraq. Al Qaeda controlled
Speaker 2: those camps. Those prison camps, they indoctrinated, they trained, they
Speaker 2: recruited its leaders, and it's as well as its rank
Speaker 2: and file. What the Iraqi government freed him and sometime
Speaker 2: in twenty ten or eleven for reasons unknown, and he
Speaker 2: return come to Syria and he immediately took control of
Speaker 2: al Qaeda's branch there, and once the Arab spring began,
Speaker 2: he you know, became a major leader within the resistance
Speaker 2: or I won't call them resistance with the jahadist fighting
Speaker 2: the Issad regime. And he had a now he get this,
Speaker 2: but he was, yeah, go ahead, No, you go ahead.
Speaker 3: I don't want to jump in there, you said. He
Speaker 3: supported what.
Speaker 2: He reported to none other than Abu Baker al Baghdaddy,
Speaker 2: the Emir of the Islamic State. Abu Baker Our Baghdaddy
Speaker 2: was the head of al Qaeda in Iraq, which became
Speaker 2: known as the Islamic State in Iraq, and Bagdaddy wanted
Speaker 2: to control the Jahad in both Iraq and Syria. Jilani
Speaker 2: wanted to control the Jahad in Syria and leave Iraq
Speaker 2: to Bagdaddy. He took his Jilani took and Bagdaddy took
Speaker 2: the dispute to al Qaeda Amir, i'm in Ozawahiri, who's
Speaker 2: ok Osama bin Laden? Jilani won, He gained control of
Speaker 2: the Jahad and Syria created a group called Jabat al Nusra,
Speaker 2: the Ilnuser front that was Al Kaita's official branch in Syria.
Speaker 2: So it's quite a pedigree. You know, how are you
Speaker 2: a what you know, a former jihadis when you reported
Speaker 2: to Abu Baker al Baghdadi, the first emir in paliff
Speaker 2: of the Islamic stage.
Speaker 1: See, this is what I want to ask, is is
Speaker 1: this guy Jilani? I mean was he was he ordering
Speaker 1: you know, suicide bombings, captives to be you know, uh,
Speaker 1: mutilated and executed. I mean all the horrible stuff that
Speaker 1: we know Jihatis in Syria were doing some people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, by no means was he as public and as
Speaker 2: brutal as Bagdadi's crew in Iraq and Syria. But he
Speaker 2: did order suicide bombings, he did order the of the
Speaker 2: slaughter of civilians and captured Syrian troops. So he's you know,
Speaker 2: he is someone who is not to be trusted. You know, look, Buck,
Speaker 2: I don't think you know the former leader of the
Speaker 2: kk If you have the leader of the KKK, if
Speaker 2: he turned around tomorrow here in the United States and
Speaker 2: just said, you know, I'm not KKK anymore, you think
Speaker 2: he would really be accepted in the political fold. But
Speaker 2: somehow you could be a jihadis that orders suicide attacks
Speaker 2: and the murder of civilians, and here in the United
Speaker 2: States we could say he's okay, is he We could
Speaker 2: this is a guy we could work.
Speaker 1: It's just amazing to me that we're at this point
Speaker 1: where there's all this celebration over the ouster of Asad
Speaker 1: and then it's like, yeah, we've got this former al
Speaker 1: Qaida guy who's in charge. So let's come back to
Speaker 1: this in a second, because I'm wondering what you think
Speaker 1: is going to happen. Now you mentioned that there'll be
Speaker 1: kind of a few different governments, But we'll get to
Speaker 1: this in a second. Our sponsor here is done with
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Speaker 1: out your national security analyst, Crystal Ball, if you would
Speaker 1: for me. What the heck happens to Syria?
Speaker 3: Now? What does this look like?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think what you're going to see that Jilawni
Speaker 2: and his Hiati hero Sham they're going to consolidate control
Speaker 2: in that corridor, the M five Highway, which is you know,
Speaker 2: goes fronts from Damascus through Hums up to Aleppo and
Speaker 2: Idlib's the that's going to be the strong point of
Speaker 2: for the Hyatt to hero shamp the Syrian National Army
Speaker 2: very likely it cooperates with hyatihiro Sham, that's right, And
Speaker 2: it's taking the fight to the Kurds, which really are
Speaker 2: the PKK or the Kurdistan Workers Party by the way,
Speaker 2: which the US supports in this fight. But when I
Speaker 2: there's just no good guys here to support, this is
Speaker 2: the real problem. It's just a series of bad to worse.
Speaker 2: The PKK is a designated tourist organization for killing over
Speaker 2: fifty thousand people in Turkey. That's why the Turks have
Speaker 2: a dog in this fight, and they back jihadis to
Speaker 2: fight Marxist terrorists. So that the Syrian National Army, they're
Speaker 2: taking the fight to the to the PKK, what we
Speaker 2: call the Syrian Democratic.
Speaker 1: Are they up in the like bottled up in the
Speaker 1: north in the northeast? Is that basically where the PKK
Speaker 1: is operating still Okay, yes.
Speaker 2: They're operating out of the north and the northeast. That's
Speaker 2: where the Syrian National Army is strongest as well, so
Speaker 2: I can and then you have a couple of other
Speaker 2: independent rebel groups in the South. Some of them that
Speaker 2: do work coordinate with Hyati hero Sham. So I think
Speaker 2: you're gonna see these fiefdoms or the Balkanization of Syria,
Speaker 2: and so.
Speaker 1: It's a failed I mean, it's becomes a failed state, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is kind of like Libya post Kadafi then,
Speaker 1: which just turned into Militiaville.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Syria was already a failed state. You already had
Speaker 2: this Balkanization. You're just replacing a sad with Hyatai, hirol
Speaker 2: Sham and Jiulani, so they get an expanded Hyatti Ero
Speaker 2: Sham was confined to this northeastern quarter corridor or corner
Speaker 2: of the of northeastern Syria, and the Turks gave them protection.
Speaker 2: So if you think the Turks are the good guys
Speaker 2: in this one for going after the PKK again, it's
Speaker 2: hard to pick a winner in Syria. We shouldn't even try.
Speaker 1: Where are the nine hundred Americans that, as I understand it,
Speaker 1: are still in Syria US soldiers and talking about here,
Speaker 1: we're still in Syria and what is their mission set?
Speaker 3: Right now?
Speaker 2: They are primarily along the border of Iraq and in
Speaker 2: northeastern Syria. So there's a I'm on this one area
Speaker 2: in the tanif these are actually Orab militias that we
Speaker 2: coordinate with, and then they're working with the PKK or
Speaker 2: the SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeastern Syria, so
Speaker 2: they're at a smattering of bases in that area, they
Speaker 2: primarily primarily rely on the SDF for their ground security.
Speaker 2: I'm very concerned. I have been. The Iraqi militias have
Speaker 2: been attacking them. What happens when these Turkish back, if
Speaker 2: they start advancing on the areas where American bases are,
Speaker 2: are they going to give them wide birth? You know,
Speaker 2: I don't know, and I don't want to find out.
Speaker 2: We've had American soldiers killed, a couple killed, and several
Speaker 2: wounded in a variety of attacks from from the Iraqi militias. Well,
Speaker 2: the Iraqi militias, these are Iranian backed, they're Iraqi militias.
Speaker 2: Are they going to reinitiate attacks? That's it. It's it's
Speaker 2: just an option.
Speaker 1: At let me sketch this because I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people that are watching or listening, this is the
Speaker 1: thing that they would want you to you to wrestle
Speaker 1: with right now. I mean, should we just pull out
Speaker 1: whatever American presence we have just say you know, audios,
Speaker 1: we're done here and just let the chips fall where
Speaker 1: they may. Is that is that the best option for
Speaker 1: the incoming Trump administration.
Speaker 2: I think it's one of the two best options. The
Speaker 2: first option is that leave and let the chips fall
Speaker 2: as it may. We may be forced to leave if
Speaker 2: the Syrian National Army continue is successful against the Syrian
Speaker 2: Democratic Forces. If we are to stay. Now, the purpose
Speaker 2: of that mission of those troops there primarily is to
Speaker 2: fight the Islamic State, and what happens if we leave.
Speaker 2: We saw what happened when the Islamic State took over
Speaker 2: large areas of Syria. That didn't work out well for you.
Speaker 2: So we do have a legitimate and national security need there.
Speaker 2: But there's another part of this too, So if we
Speaker 2: are going to stay, we need to beef it up
Speaker 2: these bases. They maybe should be consolidated, and I would
Speaker 2: want a significant ground from maybe a battalion of troops
Speaker 2: at each base in order to protect our forces there.
Speaker 2: But they've been they've been strung out across Syria. I
Speaker 2: think it's very dangerous if we're not willing to reinforce them.
Speaker 2: Bucket's really difficult for me to argue to keep those
Speaker 2: troops in Syria. There's one more thing. The US is
Speaker 2: talking about leaving Iraq. By twenty twenty six the Biden
Speaker 2: administration signed an agreement with the Iraqi government, and if
Speaker 2: that is the Trump administration follows ruin that there's no way.
Speaker 2: They may just have to leave by default because they
Speaker 2: can't be supported without the US presence. Interac.
Speaker 1: Let's come back into I want to know to the
Speaker 1: degree we can describe it, the differences between the Islamic
Speaker 1: state and the people that comprised it, which Trump helped
Speaker 1: smash US military back in twenty sixteen, and the people
Speaker 1: who have now taken over in Syria and have taken
Speaker 1: over Damascus. We'll get there in a second. At first,
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Speaker 1: So is can we even tell what the difference between
Speaker 1: ISIS remnants, Nusra Front u HTS, you know, is are
Speaker 1: there people that have fought in all of these and
Speaker 1: and what do they really want other than control of Syria?
Speaker 1: Well that do we do we have some reason to
Speaker 1: believe that's sufficient. Do they want to become some kind
Speaker 1: of a you know, platform for the global jihad? I mean,
Speaker 1: what are the what are the risk factors as you
Speaker 1: see it. As you see it, there's.
Speaker 2: Only degrees of difference between the Hiati heral Sham and
Speaker 2: the Islamic State. They share the same call as fuck.
Speaker 2: They want to establish their first or Islamic emirate in
Speaker 2: Syria and then create a global caliphate. Look, the Jilani
Speaker 2: and crew don't cast this aside just because he gets
Speaker 2: cast as being a pragmatic leader. When Jilani supposedly broke
Speaker 2: with al Qaeda, he did it with the senior al
Speaker 2: Qaeda leaders sitting at its side. He had the approval
Speaker 2: of al Qaeda. So al Kita viewed this as a
Speaker 2: pragmatic move to soften the groups that it could receive
Speaker 2: foreign support. Remember the Taliban, how we fell for it,
Speaker 2: buck right, Not you and I and not I'm sure
Speaker 2: not your listeners, but the Biden administration, even the Trump
Speaker 2: administration and cutting the deal with the Taliban. It was
Speaker 2: a bad deal. It was a mistake, and we thought
Speaker 2: they were moderate. We thought that that was a group
Speaker 2: we can work with if we couldn't figure it out
Speaker 2: that the Taliban were bad. To me, it's no surprise
Speaker 2: that someone like Jilani is going to dupe us. But
Speaker 2: make no mistake, he's a hardcore Jahatis. There are foreign
Speaker 2: fight he claims there's no foreign fighters and he has
Speaker 2: no connections. That's what he said during the break. We
Speaker 2: don't don't have any links to external groups. He didn't
Speaker 2: say I did announce al Kaeda, I renounced my oath
Speaker 2: of allegiance. He said, we just don't have external links. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: there are al Qaeda groups that are fighting both within
Speaker 2: Jilani's rank and file as well as alongside them in Syria.
Speaker 2: This is this is the same playbook that that's basically
Speaker 2: the same playbook that the Taliban used to convince us
Speaker 2: that we could leave Afghanistan and everything will be fine.
Speaker 2: We now know there's al Qaeda training camps and a
Speaker 2: whole host of infrastructure which I've documented in Afghanistan.
Speaker 1: I guess thing is a good place to ask you
Speaker 1: about how things are going in Afghanistan. Sounds like not
Speaker 1: so good.
Speaker 2: Not so good. Yeah, the last the UN should issue
Speaker 2: another report. The last report issued over the summer, al
Speaker 2: Qaeda was operating training camps in twelve provinces. So that's
Speaker 2: not twelve trading camps. But I know at least one
Speaker 2: province has four training camps. Things are so much worse
Speaker 2: than they wear pre nine to eleven.
Speaker 1: What are they I know this is going to sound
Speaker 1: to people like a dumb question, but I think it's
Speaker 1: an important question to just sort of get us back.
Speaker 3: What are they training for? Bill?
Speaker 2: They're training for global Jahad fighters from Afghanistan. Groups like
Speaker 2: the Turkistan Islama Party, which is an El Qaeda affiliate.
Speaker 2: It's leader, Abdulahak al Turkistani, sits on Al Kaita's central
Speaker 2: shore or it's central governing committee. He sends fighters, and
Speaker 2: there's a whole Turkistan Islamic Party contingent that fights in Syria.
Speaker 2: They use it to train, to refit and to plan
Speaker 2: their operations. Now what you'll hear from people to bomb administration, Well,
Speaker 2: they haven't launched, we haven't detected any plots. They haven't launched.
Speaker 1: Assume you mean the Biden administration, right, although probably a
Speaker 1: lot a lot of cross over there too, But anyway,
Speaker 1: go ahead, Yeah.
Speaker 2: My bad. They would have said the same thing if
Speaker 2: they would have withdrew from Afghanistan. They're telling us that
Speaker 2: they're not a problem because they haven't detected any plots.
Speaker 2: I don't just remind people that between the first World
Speaker 2: Trade Center attack and the second World Trade Center attack
Speaker 2: was eight years.
Speaker 1: So do you I mean, look, you study these guys.
Speaker 1: You study these guys every day. I used to Bill
Speaker 1: as you know, but I'm out of the game now,
Speaker 1: right Like I'm like a I'm like a guy who
Speaker 1: did his time as a patrolman on the streets and
Speaker 1: now you know, I don't know what's going on in
Speaker 1: these mean streets. I'm sort of in retirement from the
Speaker 1: CT world. Do you really think, I mean, honestly, do
Speaker 1: you really think that they're gearing up to start another
Speaker 1: war with you know, the West and America and her
Speaker 1: allies and everything else, given what the last twenty years have.
Speaker 3: Looked like for them?
Speaker 1: Or you know what, what's your real feeling on that,
Speaker 1: because it just feels like, wow, you.
Speaker 3: Guys really want to do this again? You really want
Speaker 3: to do this again?
Speaker 2: Well, we look, we operate in terms of election cycles
Speaker 2: of two and four years. They operate in terms of
Speaker 2: decades and generations. They're keeping their goal ultimate goal is
Speaker 2: to establish a global califate to impose its first harsh
Speaker 2: version of Sharia or Islamic law, and on all how
Speaker 2: they do that, they do it by forming emirates. What
Speaker 2: is Afghanistan today, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. What did
Speaker 2: Jilani declare and his fighters declare in Syria? The Islamic
Speaker 2: Emirate in Syria Right now, they're focusing on the near
Speaker 2: They put aside the far enemy, right, the near enemy,
Speaker 2: build those build those calphits. They're not directly. Al Qaeda
Speaker 2: is far more clever and far more patient. The Islamic
Speaker 2: State's mistake and its demise came because it came out
Speaker 2: the gates swinging and it decided to take It was
Speaker 2: an easy target. It was a lightning rod for us.
Speaker 2: Al Kaeda has taken a more patient and more clever approach.
Speaker 2: Just because they're not plotting or executing an attack here
Speaker 2: in the United States today or attacking an embassy today
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that what next week, next month, or next
Speaker 2: year that isn't going to happen. They didn't stop being
Speaker 2: our enemies just because we disengage from Afghanistan, because we
Speaker 2: disengage from Iraq, just because we're seeking to and the
Speaker 2: so called endless wars. You know, it takes two to
Speaker 2: fight a war, and al Qaeda hasn't stopped, They've just
Speaker 2: they've changed their tactics. It actually, they've never really changed.
Speaker 2: They've always focused on the near enemy first. That's where
Speaker 2: they've always focused ninety five percent of their effort. And
Speaker 2: I think that's something that's really misunderstood by tenth counter
Speaker 2: terrorism analysts.
Speaker 1: It's not feeling like it's going so well in the
Speaker 1: Middle East as the Trump administration is about to take
Speaker 1: hold of though there are some bright spots, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: the the diminishing of Hesbola and Hamas military capability very strong.
Speaker 3: Iran is far less of a.
Speaker 1: Of a sort of a proxy, you know, the terror
Speaker 1: proxies are whatever you want to call them. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're not able to do what they were before. So
Speaker 1: do you feel like overall the Middle East as we're
Speaker 1: coming into this new administration speaking of administration cycles, is
Speaker 1: it is it more opportunity and more destabilization? As you say,
Speaker 1: where's the overall trend?
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you would ask me this question six months ago,
Speaker 2: I would have said been very negative. Right now, I
Speaker 2: describe it as a push. I mean, look, Syria certainly
Speaker 2: has thrown a wrench into the whole works, but on
Speaker 2: the Iran side of the Shia side of the coin.
Speaker 2: The Iranian backed access to resistance. The loss of Syria,
Speaker 2: that was the lynchpin for the Iranians to build its
Speaker 2: land bridge, or it's that she A crescent where they
Speaker 2: fund funnel weapons and munitions and fighters from Iran through Iraq,
Speaker 2: through Syria in the Lebanon to to to supply Hesbla
Speaker 2: in its fight against Israel. They've lost that. That is gone. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: what's replaced it is far work. It maybe a greater
Speaker 2: threat to the West in the long term, not maybe
Speaker 2: not so much in the short term. But so look,
Speaker 2: I think Israel has a unique opportunity. Iran on its
Speaker 2: back foot, as you noted they are. They have taken
Speaker 2: significant blows. Hamases, you know, has had significant losses. Israel
Speaker 2: decimated Hamas or Hezbolah's leadership and rank and file up
Speaker 2: until the signing of that ill time cease fire. The Israelis,
Speaker 2: if they went on the offensive against Heswall, they could
Speaker 2: break them, I mean not to fully defeat them, but
Speaker 2: beat them back so that there may be a minor
Speaker 2: player in the Middle East instead of a dominant force.
Speaker 2: So looking at this, the Iran axis looks to be
Speaker 2: significantly hurt if the Trump administration was willing to break
Speaker 2: the Houthis and their stranglehold on the Red Sea. It's
Speaker 2: another Iran back group that is in Yemen that is
Speaker 2: just a stain on the Biden administration and on the
Speaker 2: US armor honor for a third rate militia to dominate
Speaker 2: international shipping in the United States needs the lead of
Speaker 2: coalition to destroy the Houthis. That would really set the
Speaker 2: Iranians back. This Al Qaeda Islamic state problem, it's a
Speaker 2: persistent threat. It's one that needs to be managed. When
Speaker 2: never going to muster the troops to go in like
Speaker 2: we did in Iraq in two thousand and three or
Speaker 2: Afghanistan in two thousand and one after nine to eleven,
Speaker 2: that's just not on the horizon apps in a massive attack.
Speaker 2: But it's a problem that does need to be dealt with.
Speaker 2: It's when we can't take our eye off Look, the
Speaker 2: people took the eye off the ball in Syria and
Speaker 2: now you have a jah hottest regime that is in
Speaker 2: charge of us of a significant portion of the country.
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Speaker 1: my friend, Uh, well, let's hope that Trump fixes them
Speaker 1: at least.
Speaker 3: What do you say yeah, I hope.
Speaker 2: So I'd like to see him take the shackles off
Speaker 2: the Israelis, let them finish off hes blood, and deal
Speaker 2: a blow to Iran. And you know, man just manages
Speaker 2: prompt take the fight to the hooties, and I think
Speaker 2: it's a quick win for the Trump administration. And just
Speaker 2: don't take the buy off the ball, particularly in Afghanistan.
Speaker 1: It's very dangerous, Bill Rogio, thanks so much, my friend.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me Buck, Always a pleasure.